Book

Dibakar Das Roy

Creative Brand ManagerThe VCU Brandcenter

www.wiki39.wikispaces.com

Me.


Campaign: Internship, Summer 2008Brand: Me

Target Audience: You as an agency.

Book & Resume

Introduction (Digital Familiarity) [Youtube*, Current TV*]

A diagram showing the different ways you can take a look at my work, my interests and my belief system.

My interests, opinions and my work.

My professional life and my work on paper.

Who I am. Where I am from.What I beleive in.

*Youtube Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyzzCne0rpY*Current TV Link: http://current.com/items/88872381_youtoob

Dibakar Das Roy300 W. Franklin Street, Richmond VA 23220 | 804 386 4973

[email protected]|www.wiki39.wikispaces.com

Work Experience: [Marketing, Advertising, Production]Saatchi & Saatchi New Delhi (April 2006 - June 2007)Clents: Coca Cola and Sony Ericsson Duties: Framing integrated communication strategies, and exploring executional concepts in collaboration with the client .

Ideosync Media Combine New Delhi (November 2004 - February 2005)Clients: BBC and UNAIDSDuties: Production assistant on a documentary series spreading AIDS awarenessamong college students in India.

Education: [Brand Management, Advertising & P.R., Literature]VCU Brandcenter Richmond (August 2007 - Present)Degree: Msc. Mass Communications Concentration: Creative Brand ManagementIndian Institute of Mass Communication New Delhi (August 2005 - March 2006)Degree: P.G. DiplomaConcentration: Advertising and Public Relations

Hindu College New Delhi (August 2002 - March 2005)Degree: B.A. HonorsConcentration: English Literature

Activities: [Social Service, Theatre - Acting and Production]International Round Square Conference Earthquake Relief Project, Batoli (2002)Description: Built earthquake resistant shelters for the affected village, Batoli.President, Hindu College Dramatics Society (2004)Description: Wrote and directed plays for the college theatre circuit.Member, Yellow Cat Arts (2005)Description: Actor and presenter for the performing arts company.

Skill Set: [Technical and Intellectual]Microsoft OfficeIMS Software (Researching syndicated databases)Adobe Creative SuiteGoogle Adwords and AdsenseiMovie, Final Cut Pro (Editing)

Brand ManagementClient ManagementResource Allocation/BudgetingBusiness WritingPublic SpeakingMedia Planning

Objective:To be a brand emissary who is equally proficient at the various technological, financial, technical and artistic disciplines that branding circumvents.

Sony AIBO Creative Brief Assignment Synopsis

Task: To re-launch the Sony AIBO

My Role:I discovered that the existing segment to which it was pitched at(kids and families) did not have the technical abilities to get the best out of AIBO. It was more than just a ‘pet’; having superior Artifical Intellignecesoftware, and requiring technical skills to get the software to perform well.

Product Insight: The AIBO gets better with the amount of technical involvement and investment you put into it.

New Target: ‘The Technophile’

What About The Technophile:1. Technology is a challenge to him2. Technology is also his best companion

How is this Relevant?AIBO is a personification of the various roles that technology playsin the technophile’s life.It is both challenge to him (because of thesophesticated software involved) and is also a companion to him.

Essence: This assignment taught me that a product’s failure is often caused due to a misinterpretation of target audience. This can happen when the attributes of the product are not gauged carefully, and tested whether they func-tionally suit the target audience.

Who is He?The technophile sees most or all technology as positive, adopting technology enthusiastically, and seeing it as a means to potentially improve life and combat social prob-lems.

The Creative Seed: “Dogs and technology, man’s best freinds.”

Sony AIBO Creative Brief Assignment Synopsis

Task: To re-launch the Sony AIBO

My Role:I discovered that the existing segment to which it was pitched at(kids and families) did not have the technical abilities to get the best out of AIBO. It was more than just a ‘pet’; having superior Artifical Intellignecesoftware, and requiring technical skills to get the software to perform well.

Product Insight: The AIBO gets better with the amount of technical involvement and investment you put into it.

New Target: ‘The Technophile’

What About The Technophile:1. Technology is a challenge to him2. Technology is also his best companion

How is this Relevant?AIBO is a personification of the various roles that technology playsin the technophile’s life.It is both challenge to him (because of thesophesticated software involved) and is also a companion to him.

Essence: This assignment taught me that a product’s failure is often caused due to a misinterpretation of target audience. This can happen when the attributes of the product are not gauged carefully, and tested whether they func-tionally suit the target audience.

Who is He?The technophile sees most or all technology as positive, adopting technology enthusiastically, and seeing it as a means to potentially improve life and combat social prob-lems.

The Creative Seed: “Dogs and technology, man’s best freinds.”

Task: Increase interaction with the brand andit’s perceived value in the ,minds of the consumer.

Facts about the Consumer :

1.The Circuit City consumers spend time on the Circuit City website researching products they wants to purchase. (31.2%)2.The Circuit City consumer frequently shops online. (37.6%)3.Of all the activities they use the Internet for, chat,IM and other similar services were most commonly used.(25.1%) [Source: Simmons Data]

Problems discovered after talking to the consumers :

1. Awareness - Consumers were not aware of Firedog’s functions. Many were also not aware of how it was exactly associated with Circuit City.2. Time - Customers thought using Firedog’s services was a time-consuming affair3. Cost - Many customers were hesitant to use Firedog’s services for smaller services due to associated expenses.

The Brand:Circuit City’s Firedog brand adds a techni-cal services extension to their existing portfolio of consumer electronics goods.

Proposition: The Firedog Video Diagnosis Service

A novel concept using popular technology (Skype), that increases ease in communication and adds a new dimension to online services.

Essence: Finding new uses of existing technology to benefit consumers, thus exponentially inreasing the accessability of a brand.

Strategy:

Leverage the consumer’s online presence for technology and communication related matters to bring them closer to the Firedog brand.

The Circuit City Firedog Project Synopsis.

The Firedog Video Diagnosis Service

Execution: 1.The Firedog Video Diagnosis Service in partnership with Skype, (software that allows users to communicate with each other via video chat for free.) This will be made a unit of the Circuit City Homepage.2.The Firedog helpline number will be made a regular feature on the Skype software interface, giving anyone who downloads the software exposure to Circuit City.

Implications:1.Awareness – Greater awareness due to unmissable presence on Circuit City homepage. Awareness will also increase as the number of Skype users increase.

2.Time – The Firedog Video Diagnosis Service will benefit consumers who are pressed for time and do not want to wait for the Firedog service to reach their homes. It will be able to give them on the spot guidance, where, by seeing what the problem is through the video chat service, the Firedog crew will be able to diagnose and lead the consumerthrough the necessary steps required in solving the problem.

3.Cost – As the software is free, it will save Circuit City a lot of money spent in fuel and labor costs associated with sending Firedog members to different areas. It will also encourage people who were till now reluctant to call Firedog and use itsservices, since the cost of services rendered will be much lower due to the savingson transportation and labor costs.

The first helpline in the world that will use video chat as a means to diagnosing problems and gaining assistance from the experts. It will help save time, money and create awa-renss for the Firedog brand. No other assistance service uses this technology at present.

Pet Project (Digital Anthropology) The 21st Century Anti-Brand.

Description: A Bittorrent search engine that facilitates file-sharing between people.Why is this brand important: The organisation behind this Swedish site, Piratbyran, is the first body to openly contest the right to copy files. Their vision is to make file-sharing on the internet a legal phenomena. Their argument - copying is a natural digital and neurological process, especially in this age of technolgy when the cost of reproduction is virtually zero.

Brand Valuation: Worth millions of dollars in music, software and other digital information that is being traded for free, but casing losses to their respective industries.

Legality: File sharing is illegal. The site was shut down for three days last year, but since they are not hosting any content on it themselves, but merely playing a connection between two file sharers, they are protected by the law. They are as legal as Google. Piratebay can not be shut down.

Implications: As web sites such as these expose the nearing obsoletion of traditional copyright laws, they will affect changes in business models, as can be seen in case of the music industry and the struggling record labels. The changes will also be felt on the part of software developers, the movie industry and image banks such as Getty Images.

Conclusion: Piratebay is spurning a cultural movement all across the world where people on the net are beginning to fight for their right to copy. This larger brand is facilitating file sharers all across the world to connect on a common ideology, and is breeding a base for 21st century digital philosphy. this could have a radical impact on our ecnomies, making Piratebay one of the most important ‘anti-brands’ of the century.

In this synopsis of an ongoing project that I am working on outside the school curriculum, I will outline a ‘digital’ brand of the 21st Century, and its cultural relevance. Brand: www.thepiratebay.orgBrand Positioning: Sharing is caring.Brand Values: Standing for the right to copy.

Essence: Technology is changing our philosophy towards intellectual property, and this movement is being spurned by a website/brand that stands for this right to copy. This brand is now branch-ing out to other spheres of society such as politics and fashion, powered by its ideology.

A chart showing how the ideology of this anti-brand is spreading to different

spheres of life such as politics, economics and fashion.

Piratbyran (The mother brand that is spurning this movement)

Piratpartiet: An actual political

party that has sprung up in

Sweden. It’s agenda, file sharing on

the Internet being legalized and the

right to intellectual property.

Thepiratebay.org: The website that is leading this cutural

and ideological paradigm shift by facilitating file sharing

worth millions of dollars, every day.

Kopimi Clothing: To stand for ‘copy

me’, this clothing brand released by

the same organisation is selling out

in Sweden the moment it hits stores.

Why? Because it represents an

ideology that is relevant to the

people; that of the freedom to copy.

Their target audience, file sharers all

over the world.

A chart showing how the ideology of this anti-brand is spreading to different

spheres of life such as politics, economics and fashion.

Piratbyran (The mother brand that is spurning this movement)

Piratpartiet: An actual political

party that has sprung up in

Sweden. It’s agenda, file sharing on

the Internet being legalized and the

right to intellectual property.

Thepiratebay.org: The website that is leading this cutural

and ideological paradigm shift by facilitating file sharing

worth millions of dollars, every day.

Kopimi Clothing: To stand for ‘copy

me’, this clothing brand released by

the same organisation is selling out

in Sweden the moment it hits stores.

Why? Because it represents an

ideology that is relevant to the

people; that of the freedom to copy.

Their target audience, file sharers all

over the world.

Creative Thinking Assignment Synopsis

Problem: Due to the prevalence of other means of entertainment, digital or real, the pogo stick is now looked at as a thing of the past. The only people who still use them are people who have been able to adopt it as an extreme sport, a very niche segment propagated by brands such as XPogo.

Target Segment: Children of all ages!

What are they doing now?Their most favorite activity is video games. (Average time spent gaming – 10 hours a week) [Juniorsenior Research]

What is the biggest recent trend in gaming?Active gaming. Controllers such as the Wii and games such as Guitar Hero, add an experiential dimension to gaming, and are becoming increasingly popular.

What is the functionality of the pogo stick?It lets you jump around.

How do we make this relevant to the pogo stick?The jump is a common and important action in video gaming, but no product has yet reciprocated the experience of jumping around in the virtual world.

Product:‘Jump Stick’ controller for active gaming. A pogo stick adapted with themotion sensor technology found in controllers such as the Wii remote.

Feasibility:After doing research on third party developers for Wii controllers,I found out that developing this controller is possible, because thesoftware that makes motion sensing possible already exists. Ithas to be modified and fitted into a pogo stick. There are alsodevelopers that can be contacted to do the job.

Effectivity:There is a huge market for third party accesories developed for consoles such as the Wii. The industry is already flooding with various accesories that add to the experience of active gaming, some only aesthetically but some experientially as well.

Task: Bring the Pogo Stick back to cultural relevance whether in the present form or modified.

Essence: Product modification. A gaming remote made out of a pogo stick, modifiedwith available motion sensor technology, that lets you physically jump in video games.

Product Proposal: A motion sensing video game controller modified into a pogo stick attached to a base. Lets you jump around in the virtual world like Mario.

Graph showing the exponential growth in the gaming industry, especially after the appearance of active gaming in the industry.

Patents recently filed for by Nintendo for the Wii. They have not yet devel-oped them yet, but are hoping to modify a bike into a Wii controller, and also a teddy bear! [Source - 22hundred.net]

Product Proposal: A motion sensing video game controller modified into a pogo stick attached to a base. Lets you jump around in the virtual world like Mario.

Graph showing the exponential growth in the gaming industry, especially after the appearance of active gaming in the industry.

Patents recently filed for by Nintendo for the Wii. They have not yet devel-oped them yet, but are hoping to modify a bike into a Wii controller, and also a teddy bear! [Source - 22hundred.net]

The figures are based on sales trends in the industry. While considering partnering with the Wii, best and worst case scenarios were taken from the sales figures of existing Wii remote peripherals. [Best Case scenario- Wii Fit (1,000,000 units sold in the first month in Japan), Worst Case Scenario - Wii Zapper (232,000 units sold in the first month)] [Source - engadget.om]

A probability tree for revenue approximation:

Essence:

The exercise was

all about checking

the action sports

practioner’s

response to stimuli

when it came to the

ideology they held

true to, and its

relationship with X

Games.

Discussion Guide Synopsis

One of the projects that I am currently working on is the action sports brand X,

which include X Games, EXPN.com and the X Games gear and apparel for

kids.

The focus group participants were action sports practitioners who had qualified the

screening process (i.e. they practiced at least one of the events listed in the X Games

schedule.

This discussion guide was prepared for our focus groups which we

conducted to get direction on what the brand’s percpeived values are

in the minds of actions sports participants and fans, and what

direction the brand should take.

Our first round of questions were to get introduced to everyone in the focus group.

The following rounds probed into their general interests and their interst in action

sports.

The next few rounds got into the lifestyle and the community of action sports and

questioned the participants on their own experiences and perspectives.

We then asked for their opinions on action sports competitions and thereafter

tested some benefit statements for the brand that we had hypothesized.

We then ended with a closing exercise that tred to determing their perspetive on

where they thought action sports was going.

Diagrammatic Representation of the Exercise

Topic Comment

Arrival

Introduction

Focus Group Objectives

Rules

Acrodunk teammember asks each participant as they arrive “What does ‘X’ mean to you?” This will glean connections to

the actual letter X and also set the stage for more abstract

thinking among the participants.

Moderator introduces self. The discussion today is focused

on action sports.

The objective of this group is find information about action

sports, your participation in the sport.

Please speak freely and openly with your answers. You will

not be judged on any of your responses, we simply want to

gain knowledge from your experiences. You may also ask

for clarification any questions or subjects being discussed at

anytime.

We ask that you also turn off your cell phone for the duration

of the session.

Introduction: Allow 3 minutes

General Interests: Allow 5 minutes

The questions in this section

aim to establish a connec-tion with the participants,

make them comfortable and

get a conversation going. At

the same time, the questions

in this section aim to get a

holistic view of their genera-tion and what their values

and ideologies are, so as to

be able to correlate it to all the activities that they engage in.

Ask participants to go around the

room and introduce themselves.

Provide participants with a

“bio sheet” asking for their

favorite band/singer,

movie/TV show,

book/magazine/website,

favorite action sport, and

3 adjectives to describe their generation (from

word list).

Purpose Question Comment

X Games Discussion Guide

General Action Sports Interest: Allow 3 minutes

This section aims at finding out how the sport itself spreads amongst people, what its main attractions are, and what are the various nuances that make people choose the action sport that they do. It also tests their level of involvement and the problems if any, faced by them in the pursuit of the sports.

If you were to have to explain what an action sport was to someone, what would you say?

Group Activity: Each person individually defines action sports on a piece of paper using the think/feel/say exercise. Allow only one minute to write to gain immediate thoughts.

Allow each person to define action sports.


Action Sports Lifestyle: Allow 7 minutes

This section will allow us to gauge how involved their life-style is to action sports.


Does action sports have a lifestyle behind the individual sport? Talk about it.

Does action sports have one cohe-sive lifestyle or do they change from sport to sport?

If one lifestyle, describe.

If more than one lifestyle, how are they different? Are there any con-nections between them.Do you fit your description of the lifestyle? Why or why not?


This section aims at finding out how exactly news about the action sports community spreads around, and how involved in the community people participating in action sports are. It also gauges the impact of standards set by the community on their lifestyle and probes into their aspira-tions towards the sport.

What are your thoughts on the action sports community as a whole?

Do you feel you are a part of this community?How prevalent is this community in your life outside of participating in the sport? Does this community have any affect on you outside of your participation in the sport?

Action Sports Commuity: Allow 10 minutes




Action sports Community (contd.)

Who/What has the biggest influ-ence on action sports?How do you learn about what’s

happening in the world of action sports? Is it a local or national influence?Do you feel action sports are main-stream?Is this a positive or a negative?Will this ever change?

Action Sports Competitions: Allow 7 minutes

This section asks their views on competition in the field of action sports. It tests the presence of the brand X in their lives, and finds out what position it occupies in their minds.

What competitions come to mind when they think of action sports?General thoughts on action sports and competitions. Open discussion

Do you think competitions are a negative or a positive for action sports?What are you thoughts on the X Games?What does the brand X Games add to action sports?

Closing Exercise: Allow 5 minutes

To determine their thoughts on the path that action sports is going.

If you were able to write a post-card from the future what would you say about the state of actions sports. Discuss.

Group Activity: ask partici-pants to work together to write their message while we discusses any final business.

Thank you. We hope you enjoyed the pizza!

Thank You.


Thank You.


Book

Business

sony aibomy

superior artifical

ideological

patents recently

combat social

actual political

circuit city

requiring